Man most likely misses top CBA job

If
Ross McEwan
is feeling like he’ll always be second in line to the throne, it doesn’t show.

The
Commonwealth Bank of Australia
’s retail chief was the man many considered the front-runner to succeed chief executive Ralph Norris.

Instead, CBA opted for
Ian Narev
, the 44-year-old head of its business and private banking divisions, who will take over from Mr Norris when he retires in December.

CBA has been praised for promoting from within. But the fact that it wasn’t Mr McEwan surprised many within the bank and raised questions about his future.

“Right now, I have got a big business to run and we’ve got competition trying to have a go at us everywhere and I love that competition," Mr McEwan told The Australian Financial Review.

“So I am very happy with the role that I have got and I plan to be here for a while anyway. I’ve got a big role here and I have a great team and I am enjoying the competition that is going on in the marketplace. Whilst I am enjoying myself, I will be there."

Like Mr Norris, both Mr McEwan and Mr Narev are New Zealanders. But on paper, that’s where the similarities end.

Mr McEwan is a career banker with more than two decades of experience in financial services. As head of the CBA’s offering to retail customers, he has run the country’s biggest home loan business for four years. Mr Narev is a lawyer with a specialty in mergers and acquisitions who worked for global consulting firm McKinsey & Co before joining CBA in 2007 and leading its takeover of BankWest.

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While he has headed CBA’s fast-growing business and private banking division since 2009, his relatively short experience running a division of a major financial institution has been a talking point for investors.

“While Ian was considered one of two possible internal successors, the market had regarded Ross McEwan as the favoured internal candidate," Citigroup analyst Craig Williams said.

UBS analyst Jonathon Mott said: “We believe that some investors may be concerned over [Narev’s] relatively limited tenure as a banking executive and his consulting background. However, his track record to date has been strong."

CBA chairman David Turner said Mr Narev was “absolutely the right man for this job".

However, he also acknowledged that locking in Mr McEwan would be a key strategic priority.

“We are very much hoping that Ross and others will remain with the bank for many, many years to come," he said.

“They are a very strong team. Ross is a very committed and exceptional leader of the retail bank and we hope he will remain with us is all I have to say on that subject.

“At the end of the day, however long it takes, Ross’s future is in Ross’s hands, but we hope he will remain a part of the team for a long, long time."

Having worked closely with Mr Narev, Mr McEwan described him as an intelligent, highly committed leader.

“The process that the board went through [to appoint a new CEO] I think was a very thorough and good process," Mr McEwan said.

“You put yourself forward and you do your best and at the end of the day, if you don’t get the role, you’ve done what you can.

“I am delighted that Ian is the successful candidate because he is such a good guy and we have worked shoulder to shoulder together in the business, and it is a delight that he got it and that it was someone internally inside the business. That is really important for the Commonwealth Bank at this stage."